Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Transfer Numero Uno

Final day of transfer numero uno!! There are 13 transfers in a sister missionary´s mission and I have completed the first one. I am staying in Arica and with Hermana Castor. I already knew that since we are still training, but it was still fun to recieve the phone call. Everyone spent the week making guesses about who was going to go and who was going to come. It didnt matter to me though, since I don't know very many of the other missionaries lol. One of the missionaries that we live with thought she was going to be transfered, so we were anxious and nervous to see what the change would be, but it turned out that she and her companion are staying with us, so no changes lol. We are getting a new zone leader so that will be fun.

This week we saw great improvement! We were able to have an increase in the number of lessons we were having. It had dropped in the 4th and 5th week, but we are back on track! We have two new investigators. One is "V" who is a child in an inactive family. The goal is to activate the whole family so that we can have her baptized. We went and taught her the plan of salvation and at the end she shouted "I want to be baptized!". We are really hoping her enthusiasm will help her family. They are hard to teach and have mixed ideas about the gospel and science fiction, so its always an interesting lesson. Plus, they have been going to another church on Wednesday nights because this church gives free dinner, but the family is getting some mixed up gospel ideas from that church. We really need to reconvert them to the true church. It is a difficult task but not impossible.

Our other investigator is" I". We had an address from the ward guide (where all the phone numbers and dirrections are I forgot what its called) and wanted to find an inactive man. However, the address ended up not existing. The street where he lives is really far and in a part of the sector that we can't go after dark, so we decided to take advantage of our being there and make contacts and there we found "I". She is an older women of about 60 years or so. She is just in town for the next month because she is helping her disabled brother. She says that she had seen elders walking through her neighborhood, but had never contacted them. We taught her the plan of salvation and she was really captivated. We are super exited to see her progress. She invited us back and wants us to teach her brother as well. At the end of the month she is leaving, obviously, but we can teach her all we can and then turn her over to the missionaries in her neighborhood.

Hermana Castor and I are working on our first ward activity!! We are super excited and it is coming together well, even though we are not going to do it until March 28th. We are going to use Hermana Castor´s idea of a talent show and its called Tarapaca´s Got Talent. We are going to have a dinner and a variety show of talents. There is also going to be a museum element to display those talents that are not for the stage (paintings, clothing design, etc). We already have six people ready and the best part is that 2 of them are meos activos and one is an investigator.We are plainning on having each quorum/auxiliary present somehting as well. It is going to be a lot of work, but we are already seeing a lot of excitement and it is still a month a way. The ward has not had an activity for several months and almost no one went to the last one, so if we can at least get the members to come it will be a success for the first activity. We are hoping that the food will really draw them in and we are going to distribute a lot of the responsibilities too so they are obligated to come hahah!

This week I also got to do my first intercambios where we change companions for a day. I was left in my sector and went with Hermana Delgado. I had to remember where all the people live and take the iniative in teaching. I was confident that I could do it, but somehow still super nervous. It ended up being great! I got lost for a minute with one house, but not super lost haha. I knew in the general direction where I needed to be. I also got to learn some new contact techniques and teaching methods from Hermana Delgado. it was a lot of fun. The sister trainers (Hermana Tumbaco and Delgado) are the sisters that live with us and they do all the intercambios with all the sisters in Arica. It is funny how we live with them but do not know them too well. We work all day and just see each other for a few hours in the morning and then at night. Therefore doing the intercambio gave me more time to know Hermana Dalgado. She is a ton of fun and really positive. I admire that. She is also much more up front with the people than Hermana Castor and I have been, so I learned a lot about that too.

One of my goals for this transfer is to recognize and utilize the power and authority that I have as a missionary. It is easy to want to be friends with the members and investigators and menos activos, but they have to know my purpose. Sometimes I have fear of saying something direct like " why didnt you go to church?" or telling them that they really can change and need too. However, that is my duty. In the CCM we listened to a talk about our power and authority. It mentioned that as sisters this is the only time that we have the power and right to call people to repentance and to bring people to the waters of baptism. We can be member missionaries all of our lives, but only those who are set apart have that special power. I need to utilize that power more and remember that is my purpose in this short time during my life.

These next six weeks I hope to see great progress both in the people I work with and myself. These first six weeks were great and I have learned tons, but there is so much more I can do. I am loving my sector and having an awesome time working here.

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Emilee

I'm a forever student who has found a passion for travel. Whether it be a few miles away or on the other side of the world, I enjoy new experiences and developing a love for everything that makes this earth beautiful.